ARE YOU READY TO BEAR THE MARKS OF JESUS ON YOUR BODY?

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR C.
(First reading: Isaiah 66:10-14) (Second reading: Galatians 6:14-18)
(Gospel: Luke 10:1-12, 17-20)
July 8, 2007

ARE YOU READY TO BEAR THE
MARKS OF JESUS ON YOUR BODY?

"I bear the marks of Jesus on
my body" (Galatians 6:17)

The marks of Jesus are what makes him visible to the world. Christians must bear the marks of Jesus on their bodies because the Lord has sent them to be his visible witnesses before world.

Being sent by the Lord means that the Lord is made visible through the ones he sends forth.

The marks of Jesus are his cross and his resurrection, his struggle and his victory, his suffering and his glory.

Does the world see Jesus in you? Do you reflect through your life the cross and resurrection of Jesus?
In his Letter to the Galatians, Saint Paul makes it clear that there is no other purpose in his life than that of being an ambassador of Jesus (Jesus on the cross), that is, an apostle of Jesus the savior of the world.

Like Saint Paul, we too have been sent by the Lord to a world which needs salvation.

How do we receive the marks of Jesus?
In order to receive the marks of Jesus we must:
1. Be willing to receive his mercy, to believe that "He will spread prosperity over his people like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent" (Isaiah 66:12); and

2. We must bring that mercy and prosperity to all human beings. Psalm 66 says "I will declare what the Lord has done for me" (Psalm 66:16).

Thus, the marks of Jesus on our bodies are essentially imprinted on our entire being and are visible through what be received, accept, believe and do.

Those who cannot see, receive and rejoice in the marks of Jesus cannot bear them on their body.

The marks of Jesus are efficacious:
The gospel says that Jesus "sent his disciples ahead of him" to bring peace to the people, to cure their illnesses, to expel evil spirits, to announce that "the kingdom of God is at hand" (Luke 10:9); and that is what the disciples did.

The marks of Jesus are to be seen by a world which is extremely hostile to Jesus, by a world which rejects Jesus, a world which acts as the wolf killing the lambs (Luke 10:3)

The wolves of the world do not believe in the marks of the Lord Jesus even if they see them for they rather believe in their "money bags" (Luke 10:4), in their powerful weapons, in their oppressive global dominion.

The wolves of the world promote dispossession and consumerism. Those wolves rely only in the size of their "money bags" and their profits. In the eyes of those wolves nothing can be achieved without their money bags; for those wolves anyone who does not pursue money, is a failure; for those wolves money is the supreme mark of victory in the world.

Furthermore, in their insatiable greed for money and power, the wolves of the world lead human beings to their mutual destruction through wars of aggression and conquest.

Jesus disarms the wolves of the world when he tells us: "Carry no money bag" (Luke 10:4)

Today we refuse to bear the marks of the world on our body; now, are we ready to bear the marks of Jesus on our body?